Chapter 236 Arrival in Jinling
After breakfast, Su Mo went to get some hot water and wiped the two children. After cleaning up the children, Su Mo and Lu Xiaolan also got some water and wiped themselves.
It takes six days and five nights to get from Harbin to Jinling, and they are on the train during this period. The children can get some hot water on the train and wipe themselves, but the adults can only bear it.
The train was at 11 o'clock in the morning. After cleaning up, Su Mo checked out and went to the train station to wait for the train.
Fortunately, the train was not delayed, and the two of them got on the train smoothly with their children.
When Su Mo bought the ticket, she told the ticket seller that she was bringing two children, so she bought the lower bunk.
It was also good luck that the upper bunk of the room they were in was occupied by two PLA comrades who were returning home to visit their relatives.
Lu Xiaolan breathed a sigh of relief. Now that she was with the PLA comrades, at least she would be safe and not have to worry. It
was also the first time for Lu Xiaolan to travel far away, and she was actually panicking. The farthest place she had been to before was when she and Yang Jingming got married. They went to Shuangshan City to buy things together.
She was on the train yesterday, but she didn't dare to close her eyes for a moment, for fear that her things would be stolen and that her two children would be taken away.
She also thought that she and Su Mo would take turns sleeping these days, and one of them had to be awake to look after the children and the things.
Lu Xiaolan was also quite eloquent, and she quickly became enthusiastic with the two PLA comrades. When they learned that they were military dependents and were taking their children to Yangcheng to follow the army, they immediately started calling them sister-in-law.
She was very active in helping them with work, such as getting hot water, buying meals and looking after the children.
It was the first time for the two children to sit on a berth, and they were very new to it. Lele was even more excited, looking around here and there.
Unfortunately, starting from the second day, she couldn't sit still. After all, after staying in a small place for too long and making so many noises, Lele couldn't sit still and kept asking to walk around. Su Mo had no choice but to take him for a stroll in the carriage.
Otherwise, the boy had a good voice, and once he started howling, it would be a nuisance.
An An, on the other hand, was beyond Su Mo's expectations.
She thought that according to her temper, she would be very impatient, but she didn't expect that she was patient. She either lay down to rest or sat looking at the scenery outside the window. She was very well behaved.
Every time the train stopped, Su Mo and Lu Xiaolan would take turns to take the children off the train for a walk and some fresh air.
Finally, after a few days of hard work, the train arrived at Jinling Station at 3 pm on the 10th.
After getting off the train, Su Mo hurried out of the station and went to a nearby guesthouse to get a room. Because only suites have bathrooms, they booked a suite for two yuan a night.
Su Mo hurried to get water and gave the two children a bath. After the children, the adults took a bath.
"Third sister-in-law, I don't think I want to take the train anymore. I still have a ringing sound in my ears." Lu Xiaolan complained.
She had heard her colleagues talk about how comfortable the berths were before, and she saw that they were bragging about it. It was obvious that they were suffering.
Su Mo waved her hand, "I don't want to sit here anymore, let's rest here for two days before going to Guangzhou." It was also the first time for her to be on a train for such a long time, which was really a torture.
It was okay when the two PLA comrades were there, they were hygienic and would help them, but it was a pity that the PLA comrades got off when the train stopped in Beijing.
The people who came up behind were really hard to describe, they didn't care about hygiene, had loud voices, and liked to take advantage. In short, Su Mo and Lu Xiaolan not only had to take care of the children, but also had to be on guard against those two people, which was really tiring.
Lele saw the two people saying this, and quickly waved his hand and said, "No, Lele doesn't want to take the train."
Lu Xiaolan was instantly amused, "Look at how much you force the child, he can speak fluently."
This train ride will probably become a short-lived nightmare in Lele's little life.
Seeing that it was time for dinner, Su Mo locked the door and took the two children out. Intent on showing them the world, Su Mo asked the waiter at the guesthouse and took the bus to the nearest state-owned hotel for dinner. Su Mo
didn't skimp on food, as she didn't eat enough and sleep well on the train. She ordered a serving of salted duck, a serving of squirrel fish, a serving of duck blood vermicelli soup, two steamed buns, a stir-fried vegetable, and two bowls of rice.
"Third sister-in-law, don't order so much, or you won't be able to finish it." Seeing Su Mo ordering, Lu Xiaolan hurriedly tried to stop her.
Su Mo waved her hand and smiled, "I can finish it. The food in the south is small." But these, two large and two small, are enough.
While waiting for the dishes to be served, Lu Xiaolan secretly looked at this big hotel.
This one more word makes a difference. In their state-owned hotel, the dishes are fixed every day, unlike here, where guests can order dishes according to the menu.
The first thing served was the small steamed bun. Lu Xiaolan was shocked when she saw it, "This, is a bun? It looks like it's not even as big as our dumplings."
Su Mo smiled secretly. The difference between the north and the south will shock Lu Xiaolan in the future.
"This is the specialty here, try it quickly, but be careful, the soup inside is very hot." Su Mo asked Lu Xiaolan to eat quickly, and she picked up two and put them in the bowl, first skimmed the soup, let it cool down before feeding them to the two little ones.
Lu Xiaolan tasted one, and it was really delicious. The skin was very thin, and the soup and meat filling inside were delicious, but it was not filling. She felt that she could eat seven or eight baskets by herself.
"Delicious!" Lu Xiaolan praised.
Lele has recently fallen in love with parroting, and when he saw his aunt say it was delicious, he also said: "Delicious!"
Su Mo smiled and asked, "What's delicious about it?"
"It's delicious and sweet." Lele said.
Su Mo also took one and tasted it. The soup inside was indeed a little sweet, but to be more precise, it should be called fresh.
"Le Le, this taste is fresh, not sweet." Su Mo taught her son.
Le Le nodded and said, "Yeah, fresh. Mom, eat." Then he opened his mouth wide, waiting to be fed.
After a while, the other dishes were served. Lu Xiaolan looked at the dishes and felt that the chefs in the state-owned hotels in the south were really not easy. This job was much more trivial than theirs. However, the portions were not big, probably just a little more than half of theirs.
The two adults and two children had a delicious meal, but the two children mainly ate steamed buns and vermicelli, and they just tried the other dishes.
After the meal, they paid the bill, which cost a total of 5 yuan.
Lu Xiaolan silently estimated and felt that the price was higher than that in Qingxi County.
"Third sister-in-law, are things in the south more expensive than in the north?"
Su Mo was stunned. "It seems not. The prices seem to be about the same."
"I feel that the meal just now was more expensive than ours, and the portion was smaller."
"Oh, that's it. It seems that the dishes in big hotels are more expensive than those in state-owned hotels, the service is better, and the chefs are not of the same level."
Su Mo remembered reading a period novel before, in which the heroine was a chef who worked in a state-owned hotel. It was introduced in the book that in this era, basically junior and mid-level chefs would be enough for state-owned hotels, but for big hotels, senior chefs or above would be enough.
Su Mo didn't know if it was the same here, but judging from the meal just now, the chef's cooking skills were indeed very good.
That night, the few of them had a rare good sleep.
The next day, Su Mo asked Lu Xiaolan to look after the children while she went to buy a train ticket for the 8:00 a.m. train on the 12th, and expected to arrive in Guangzhou in the evening of the 14th.
After buying the tickets, Su Mo went to the post office to send a telegram to the troops, and then called Su Tingqian and Lu Qingan to tell them that they had arrived in Jinling and told them about the situation on the road.
It was a rare opportunity to come to Jinling, and while there was still time, Su Mo took Lu Xiaolan and the two children for a walk around. Because they had to get up early the next day, they went to bed early.